In today's digital age, storytelling is changing in a big way. Some of the most forward-thinking filmmakers are exploring ways to use the Web, teaming up with coders to create rich experiences that put viewers right in the middle of the action.

Take the new transmedia projects on display at the Tribeca Film Festival's Storyscapes program, for instance. The exhibition, which celebrates filmmakers and content creators who are using an interactive approach to story creation, showcases everything from a website that lets users experience what it's like to have insomnia to a line of tiny cardboard robots called BlabDroids who are filming their own documentary.

Filmmakers have only scratched the surface of what is possible with this new digital palette, says Ingrid Kopp, director of digital initiatives at the nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute (pictured above).

The nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) held a daylong conference on Saturday, bringing together interactive storytellers, traditional filmmakers, coders, and photographers to explore storytelling in the digital age. Curated by Kopp, the program touched on everything from audience involvement in storytelling to "nonlinear" narratives that don't have a set beginning and end.

"My primary goal is to get people excited about the possibilities for digital interactive storytelling, and get them to really think about using the Web as a medium, and what different platforms can do," Kopp said. "The whole point of this is to collaborate with people you're maybe not used to collaborating with."

We sat down with Kopp at TFI Interactive Day to talk about the latest trends in interactive storytelling.

PCMag: The way people consume media has changed so much thanks to social media, the Internet, and streaming video sites. Can you tell us about this trend and how movie and TV consumption is evolving in the digital age?
Kopp: There are different things happening. Traditional, linear media is now getting distributed in digital ways though apps like the BBC iPlayer or HBO GO. That work can exist on a television screen, in a theatre, and it also can exist on your iPad through an app. That's one thing, and I think that's super interesting and totally disruptive, but what we're looking at is something more than that. It's actually thinking about  on the Web, [stories] don't have to be linear.

Someone made a point that uploading your film to Vimeo is not the same as making an interactive, Web-native documentary. One is using the Internet as another pipe, the other is using the Internet with all of its hyperlinking capabilities, pulling in rich data, and creating interactive experiences for the user. For me, this idea that the Internet isn't just another pipe is really important.

PCMag: How are filmmakers and distributors reacting to these shifts?
Kopp: In some ways, everyone's really excited about it, and in other ways it's kind of terrifying. For film distribution, it's a huge challenge, because obviously there are monetization issues around these new ways of distributing content. In terms of traditional film distribution, it's caused a huge rupture.

But in my job that's not what I think about. I don't do traditional film distribution anymore, and the work that we're doing is so different to that. We have challenges too  but it's a different set of challenges. We often don't have a linear film at the heart of what we do, and there may not even be video.

PCMag: What are some of the most forward thinking, tech-savvy filmmakers and storytellers doing?
Kopp: People who are doing the most exciting work right now are really thinking about creative code, and code as a creative tool in their work. I don't mean that they are learning code or becoming expert coders. I mean they are working with developers and designers to re-think how they tell stories. So, the idea of stories as software is something that's very interesting to me.

More than that, there's this idea of stories as hardware as well. Lance Weiler has this Laika's Adventure project, which is this robot going around the world collecting data. That's a project that we funded through the TFI New Media Fund, and there's a robot at the heart of it. And at Storyscapes, which is the section of the festival for transmedia projects, we have these robots called Robots in Residence (right) that are recording stories.

For me it's this idea of stories as hardware, and stories as software. When you stop thinking about a film as this linear thing in a certain aspect ratio that lasts a set period of time, what else can it be? And for me, story is still at the heart of it, it's still about  can you tell a good story, and are you telling it in the right medium? The technology doesn't always serve the story, but of course technology changes what you can do. And it's that expanded story that's super exciting to me.

PCMag: Which transmedia projects are you most excited about this year?
Kopp: I'm obviously really excited about the projects coming down the pipeline with the TFI New Media Fund. I can't wait to see Hollow, I think Elaine McMillion is doing amazing work. I'm really excited to see Laika's Adventure (left), which will fully launch in the fall. I love the Localore projects; the way they are really conceptualizing and re-thinking public media is really powerful. And I love this idea of hyper-local projects that have global ramifications. Also, NFB [National Film Board of Canada]  anything they do I'm always interested in. They're amazing.

More broadly, I am also interested in the exhibition and distribution of this work. That's why Storyscapes was so important to me. What I'm really interested in seeing is how this all gets out to audiences. I feel like there is a transmedia community that's built up around this work, and we tend to talk to each other, but the only way this is going to get out to a wider audience is for us to go out and show the work.

The fact that the Tribeca Film Festival is showing transmedia projects with Storyscapes is really key, and there needs to be more of that so there's more of this critical discourse around this space. That's what pushes it forward.

We are in the early days. But I don't think we're at the beginning anymore  there is so much work that we can already point to.

PCMag: You mentioned that filmmakers are working with coders  is that happening more often now than in the past?

Kopp: It is happening with these projects  they have to work together to get the projects made.

PCMag: Are coders excited about working with filmmakers?
Kopp: Yes, definitely. But there's confusion and distrust and a lack of structure and infrastructure on both sides. That's why we're doing Tribeca Hacks. It's usually one to three days; it's a very safe, concentrated time where we get filmmakers and coders together in a room to make work. We've got one happening at the end of the festival, and we've got people from Google and openFrameworks coming. It means we can experiment with all these different kinds of technologies.

For us as the TFI, it's really powerful, and at the same time the filmmakers and coders get to meet each other. That's the most important thing. We don't run in the same circles. The coders go to their conferences, we go to ours.

I do think there is huge interest. I've spoken to so many coders, and they're keen to work together. I mean, everyone loves a good story.

PCMag: In some of the sessions here, speakers have talked about how audience involvement is playing a role in content creation. How has this changed over time?
Kopp: For me, audience involvement is where this all started. I started looking at the audience, not the creators initially. I was aware that the audience would be changing. That's what lead me to look at creators, and see what they were making to match that expectation.

One thing I will say, though, is that I think [content creators] sometimes overestimate the appetite for interaction. One of the things I think is really key about successful interactive projects is that, often, they have a lean-back mode as well. Some people don't constantly want to be clicking, or solving puzzles, or immersed in the story in ways you might want them to be. A project that has both lean back, lean forward built into it works really well.

PCMag: Which films are you most excited to see this week during the festival?
Kopp: [Laughs] If only I could go see a film. I'm not going to have any time to go see films. I'm excited about so many films, though.

The documentary Flex is Kings is supposed to be fantastic, and I really want to see Genius of Marian. I come from a documentary background, so my focus is all on the docs. I'm really, really keen to see Tricked, the Peter Verhoeven film, the one that was crowdsourced. The Vines that were created are really awesome, and they only take six seconds, so I could see those.

After the festival, I'm going to have to jump in, because I'm in my interactive tunnel at the moment.

About the Author

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She ... See Full Bio

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